District of Columbia Law Schools Libraries

District of Columbia Law Schools Libraries

We dedicate our efforts every year to building on past achievements and creating new opportunities for our students while remaining focused on our commitment to engage the community, the nation, and the world through outstanding legal education. WCL is founded on real life challenges and is devoted to preparing future generations of lawyers for the realities of those challenges.
Our students benefit from externships with governmental and nongovernmental institutions around the world; our renowned programs in clinical education, intellectual property, human rights, government, business, and environmental law; and from a dedicated faculty. Many students participate in one of our eleven journals and publications. Most of all, WCL students benefit by being part of a diverse and proactive student body, constantly seeking fresh challenges and creating new opportunities through WCL's exciting wealth of student organizations. This diverse community is further enriched by lawyers from all over the world who participate in our International Legal Studies Program and our Program in Law and Government.

Judge Kathryn J. DuFour Law Library was designated a U.S. Federal Depository Library in 1979. The Law Library is committed to providing free public access to Government information for our primary patrons and for all public patrons. As a selective depository, the Library receives ~15% of all government documents available through this program. In accordance with the mission of the law library, most depository selections cover a broad range of law related materials in many formats, concentrating on microform materials.

The Jacob Burns Law Library is among the largest and most prestigious academic law libraries in the United States. It offers a research collection rich in the historic and contemporary legal materials of America, as well as international and comparative materials. The Law Library's holdings of more than 600,000 volumes (and equivalents) and its wide range of electronic resources provide researchers with a wealth of legal information.

The mission of the library is to support fully the research and educational endeavors of the students and faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, by collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating legal and law related information in any form, by providing effective service and instructional programs, and by utilizing electronic information systems to provide access to new information products and services.

As repositories of knowledge and as places to learn, libraries are central to a university’s mission. In May 2001, Howard University School of Law Library moved into its state-of-the-art facility. The four-story, 76,000 square foot building provides space for a book collection of up to 215,000 volumes; can seat more than 295 students (more than 70 percent of the student population), including 90 open carrels; enlarged microfilm and audio-visual facilities; three distinctive rooms of wood and brick for special collections, newspaper and periodical reading, and a rare book collection.

The Law Library holds approximately 257,000 volumes and volume equivalents. The collection can be searched using the Law Library's catalog, JUSTICIA, at http://catalog.law.udc.edu/search.
As a public law school library, our primary mission is to serve faculty, staff, students, and clinics of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Our secondary mission is to serve the public, particularly residents of the District of Columbia.

At the Washington College of Law, you meet the world where you will practice your profession. The world has become essentially borderless, where economic, political, and social changes require innovative legal analysis and solutions. The Washington College of Law (WCL) equips students in unique ways to navigate this new reality. A top law school that provides an excellent legal education in all areas of the law, WCL has renowned programs in experiential learning (clinics and externships), international law, law and government, intellectual property, business, and gender. These vital programs create an environment rich with opportunities for you.